portunity of entertaining Johnson for a day or two at Wickham, when its Lord was abfent. One night, pretty late, Mr. Morgan and he had a dispute in which Johnson would not give up, though he had the wrong fide, and in fhort both kept the field. Next morning, when they met in the breakfasting-room, Dr. J. with great candour, accosted Mr. Morgan thus: "Sir, I have been thinking on our dispute last night-You were in the right." Sir Jofhua Reynolds once observed to him, that he had talked above the capacity of fome people with whom they had been in company together. "No matter, Sir (faid Johnfon), they confider it as a compliment to be talked to as if they were wiser than they are." "There is nothing more likely to betray a man into abfurdity than condescension; when he seems to suppose his understanding too powerful for his company." "No man (he used to say) speaks concerning another, even supposing it to be in his praise, if he thinks he does not hear him, exactly as he would, if he thought he was within hearing." "Never (faid he) speak of a man in his own presence. It is always indelicate, and may be offenfive." Johnfon Johnfon could not brook appearing to be worsted in argument, even when, to show the force and dexterity of his talents, he had taken the wrong side. When, therefore, he perceived that his opponent gained ground, he had recourse to some sudden mode of robust fophistry. Once when Mr. B. was preffing upon him with visible advantage, he stopped him thus: My dear B. let's have no more of this; you'll make nothing of it. I'd rather have you whistle a Scotch tune." Care, however, must be taken to distinguish between Johnson when he "talked for victory," and Johnson when he had no defire but to inform and illustrate. "One of his principal talents (says an eminent friend of his) was shown in maintaining the wrong fide of an argument, and in a splendid perverfion of the truth. If you could contrive to have his fair opinion on a fubject, and without any bias from personal prejudice, or from a wish to be victorious in argument, it was wisdom itself, not only convincing, but overpowering." He had, however, all his life habituated himself to confider conversation as a trial of intellectual vigour and skill; and to this may perhaps be ascribed that unexampled richness and brilliancy which appeared in his own, As As a proof at once of his eagerness for colloquial distinction, and his high notion of this eminent friend, he once.addressed him thus: We now have been several hours together, and you have faid but one thing for which I envied you." He disliked much all speculative desponding confiderations, which tended to difcourage men from diligence and exertion. He was in this like Dr. Shaw, the great traveller, who used to say, "I hate a cui bono man." Upon being asked by a friend what he should think of a man who was apt to say non eft tanti ? "That he's a ftupid fellow, Sir (answered Johnfon). What would these tanti men be doing the while ?" When one, in a low-spirited fit, was talking to him with indifference of the pursuits which generally engage us in a course of action, and inquiring a reason for taking so much trouble; "Sir, (faid he in an animated tone) it is driving on the system of life." Of his fellow collegian Mr. Edwards, with whom he had accidentally met after many years separation, he said, "Here is a man who has paffed through life without experience: yet I would rather have him with me than a more sensible man who will not talk readily. This man is always willing to say what he has to say." Yet (says Mr. B.) Dr. J. had himfelf himself by no means that willingness which he praised so much and so justly; for who has not felt the painful effect of the dreary void, when there is a total filence in a company for any length of time; or, which is as bad, or perhaps worse, when the conversation is with difficulty kept up by a perpetual effort ? He related, that he had once in a dream a conteft of wit with fome other person, and that he was very much mortified by imagining that his opponent had the better of him. "Now | (faid he) one may mark. here the effect of fleep in weakening the power of reflection; for had not my judgment failed me, I should have seen, that the wit of this supposed antagonist, by whose superiority I felt myself depreffed, was as much furnished by me, as that which I thought I had been uttering in my own charac ter." Of a certain player he remarked, that his conversation usually threatened and announced more than it performed; that he fed you with a continual renovation of hope, to end in a constant fucceffion of disappointment. When exafperated by contradiction, he was apt to treat his opponents with too much acrimony; as, Sir, you don't see your way | through that question :"-" Sir, you talk the language of ignorance." On its being observed to to him, that a certain gentleman had remained filent the whole evening in the midst of a very brilliant and learned fociety, "Sir (faid he), the conversation overflowed and drowned him." His philofophy, though austere and folemn, was by no means morose and cynical, and never blunted the laudable sensibilities of his character, or exempted him from the influence of the tender paffions. Want of tenderness, he always alledged, was want of parts, and was no less a proof of stupidity than depravity. Of Goldsmith he said, "He is so much afraid of being unnoticed, that he often talks merely left you should forget that he is in company.-B. "Yes, he stands forward."-7. "True, Sir; but if a man is to stand forward, he should wish to do it not in an aukward posture, not in rags, not so as that he shall 1 only be exposed to ridicule."-B. "For my part, I like very well to hear honest Gold smith talk away carelessly."-7. 66 Why yos, Sir; but he should not like to hear himself." At another time he said, "Goldsmith should not be for ever attempting to shine in conversation: he has not temper for it; he is so much mortified when he fails. A game of jokes is composed partly of skill, partly of chance; a man |